OPEC Should Maintain Output as Market Is Stable, Says Al-Naimi

May 12 (Bloomberg) -- The oil market is stable and supply
shortages can be covered, so the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries has no reason to change its production
levels, according to Saudi Arabia’s oil minister.

OPEC’s current output of about 30 million barrels a day is
the right level and global oil demand is “great,” Ali Al-Naimi
told reporters in Seoul today. Saudi Arabia, the biggest
producer in the 12-member group, is pumping about 9.6 million
barrels a day and has 12.5 million of capacity, he said.

Oil at about $100 a barrel is a “fair price for all,”
said Al-Naimi, who is attending ministerial meetings on clean
energy in South Korea’s capital. Brent futures are above $108 in
London today, rising for the first time in three days amid
concern that the crisis in Ukraine may disrupt energy supplies
from Russia. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark crude,
was near $100 in electronic trading in New York.

OPEC, which is responsible for about 40 percent of the
world’s crude supply, produced 29.9 million barrels a day in
April, the least since June 2011, a Bloomberg survey of
producers and analysts show. Saudi Arabia’s output fell by
100,000 barrels a day from March on reduced demand from power
generation and as refineries shut for maintenance, while a
pipeline linking Iraqi oil fields to the port of Ceyhan in
Turkey has been closed because of attacks.

Production from Libya, the holder of Africa’s largest crude
reserves, has dropped more than 80 percent since the start of
the uprising against Muammar Qaddafi in 2011. Supply from what
is now OPEC’s smallest producer has fallen to 235,000 barrels a
day as shutdowns at fields operated by Sirte Oil Co. continued,
according to state-run National Oil Corp.

Shut Libyan production must come back quickly, OPEC
Secretary General Abdalla El-Badri said in separate comments
posted on the International Energy Forum’s website.